Major Noah and the City of Ararat. 285 the olive leaf. Noah carried out his scheme so far as to have a When Noah quarreled with Eckford, he started a paper of his own in 1826, which he called the National Advocate. Enjoined in this at the instance of Eckford and Snowden, he changed its name to Noah's New York National Advocate. Again enjoined, he named his journal the New York Enquirer. This paper was merged with the Morning Courier in the spring of 1829. Noah went with the Enquirer into the editorial rooms of the new Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, where he remained till 1832 as an associate editor with James Watson Webb, James Lawson, James Gordon Bennett, Prosper M. Wetmore, and James Gordon Brooks; and for services to the party, Major Noah, with Amos Kendall, who had been editor of the Frankfort (Ky.) Argus, were rewarded each with an office. Noah was appointed Surveyor of the Port of New York, and Kendall Fourth Auditor of the Treasury. Noah was rejected by the Senate by 25 to 23, but subsequently, in the whirligig of politics, he was confirmed. Kendall was confirmed by the casting vote of the Vice-President. Noah, fearing a removal, soon after this resigned his office. The Enquirer introduced a new feature in 1827. In that year James Gordon Bennett was its Washington correspondent, in which he inaugurated a new system of newspaper correspondence, and in which, in March, 1827, he brought forward Martin Van Buren for the first time as the candidate for the presidency to succeed General Jackson. Afterward this political movement was urged in the Courier and Enquirer. Van Buren himself inspired this movement in his favor. Washington letter-writing had been, to this time, in its infancy. Members of Congress, in writing occasional letters to their home organs, were the principal correspondents. There were a few regular letter-writers. The change which took place in that important department of journalism is thus amusingly related by Mr. Bennett: We happen to know a good deal of this business of letter-writing from Washington, for we were the first to give it its present light and amusing character in a series of letters published in the New York Enquirer in the years 1827 and '8. Before that period a Washington letter-writer simply gave the dull details of both houses, the abstracts of reports, or a few sketches of the speakers. In the letters I furnished the New York Enquirer in those years, then conducted by Mr. Noah, I changed the whole tone, temper, and style of Washington correspondence. Before my day, the late Mr. Carter had spent a winter or two at Washington, and gave a dull recital of what he had seen and heard, in the Statesman newspaper. In Philadelphia, Walsh, sitting in his easy-chair, wrote long, labored letters to himself, heavy, flat, stupid, and disagreeable. It was in the winter and spring of 1828 that I wrote the series which appeared in the Enquirer. No one knew by whom they were written, either here or in Washington, but they were generally attributed to G. C. Verplanck. I remember very well how the idea of writing them originated in my own mind. In the library of Congress I spent much of my time, poring over Jefferson's collection of old pamphlets, which no one, before or since, has perhaps looked into. Sometimes I would take a peep at the new publications of the day, and among them I found the recent publication of Horace Walpole's famous letters and correspondence, written during the reign of George II., and describing, in witty and agreeable badinage, the intrigues, politics, incidents, and explosions of that singular court. These letters were highly amusing, graphic, and interesting. I said to myself one day, "Why not try a few letters on a similar plan from this city, to be published in New York, describing, eulogizing, or satirizing the court of John Q. Adams?" I did so. All the political, gay, fashionable, witty, beautiful characters that appeared in Washington during that winter, were sketched off at random, without being personal or offensive to any of the parties-indeed, they were mostly all complimentary and pleasing to the parties. These letters were published and became quite popular. They were copied throughout the whole country. The Enquirer had supported De Witt Clinton against Judge Rochester for Governor of New York in 1826, although Judge Rochester was the regular Democratic candidate, on the plea that Rochester was an Adams man, while Clinton was for Jackson. It was suspected at the time that this was done under the influence of Martin Van Buren. In 1827 the Enquirer came out for Jackson. It was in that year that Mr. Bennett left the National Advocate and joined the Enquirer, and wrote for that paper till 1829, after the election of Jackson. One of the incidents peculiar to the editorial profession of that period occurred in 1828. William Graham was one of the writers for the Enquirer. He was a fine-looking man, and of attractive manners. He was born in Catskill, the son of a New York merchant. He was educated at Cambridge, England. It is stated that he was "the intimate friend and forensic rival of Thomas Noon Talfourd." Also, that he once acted as amanuensis to Ugo Fosco The Graham and Barton Duel. 287 Subse lo, with whom he afterwards engaged in a bloodless duel. quently he edited the Literary Museum, and then, recrossing the Atlantic, he became editorially connected with the New York Enquirer. He wrote sketches of society in New York for that paper under the signature of Howard. In one of these essays he made what was supposed to be a personal allusion to the family of Edward Livingston. The matter was taken up by Dr. Barton, who was afterwards Secretary of Legation at Paris. In some personal observations with Dr. Barton on the subject at Niblo's Coffee-house, then on the corner of Pine and William Streets, Mr. Graham struck that gentleman. He was immediately challenged. It was accepted. In a letter to the editor of the Evening Post, written. the evening before the duel, Graham said: I admit that I am in the wrong; that by giving him (Barton) a blow, I have forced him into the position of challenger. I will not hear of any settlement short of some abject and craven submission from him. After he is perfectly satisfied I may perhaps apologize—that is, in case I am fatally wounded. William Newman, a compositor on the Enquirer, engaged a Whitehall boat which conveyed the parties to Hoboken. On that classic ground of the duello they met, and Graham was instantly killed. This affair created a good deal of excitement, as all such affairs did, and led to the enactment, by the Legislature of New York, of a strong anti-dueling law, the chief points of which were ten years' imprisonment in the States Prison for fighting, and seven years for sending a challenge. Noah, in 1834, in company with a printer named Gill, established the New York Evening Star. It became a Whig organ, and supported William Henry Harrison for the presidency in 1840. In 1841 he was appointed one of the Judges of the Court of Sessions by Governor Seward, and while on the bench he prosecuted his old associate, Mr. Bennett, of the Herald, for libel, one of the reporters of that paper having been too free in his sketches of the proceedings of that court, especially in his personal descriptions. On the death of Mr. Gill in 1841, the Star was sold, and united with the Commercial Advertiser. For some time Major Noah was editor of the New York Sun and of the Morning Star. In 1842, President Tyler, through Paul R. George, selected Major Noah to edit an official organ in New York, called the Union. It was a failure. In 1843 Noah commenced the publication of a paper which he named Noah's Weekly Messenger. In a short time it was united with the Sunday Times. Noah seemed to have a desire to edit all the papers. He was mentally active. He wrote for several at the same time. One day, in 1846 we believe, although he had abused Mr. Bennett without stint, even originating the ridiculous hue and cry of black-mail, he proposed to that editor, on the eve of his departure for Europe, to take editorial charge of the Herald in his absence. He thought he could keep up its character better than any other man. "The Herald," he said, "had become a great and influential paper. Such it should remain." The interview between Noah's friend and Mr. Bennett did not last long, and Noah did not edit the Herald. Noah was the author of "Travels in Europe and Northern Africa," the "Howard Papers on Domestic Economy," several treatises on the "Prophecies of the Bible," and the "History and Destiny of the Hebrews." He translated the "Book of Jasher." Of his plays we may mention "Paul and Alexis, or the Wandering Boys;" "She would be a Soldier, or the Plains of Chippewa ;" "The Castle of Sorento;" "Ali Pacha, or the Signet Ring;" "Marion, or the Hero of Lake George ;" "Yusef Caramali, or the Siege of Tripoli ;" "Nathalie, or the Frontier Maid;" "The Grecian Captive;" "The Siege of Daramatta ;" and "Ambition ;" rather a formidable list for an active journalist to produce. All these plays were performed at the several theatres in New York. Noah was not a journalist in the modern acceptation of the term. He was a sharp newspaper paragraphist. His political squibs were good and pointed. In these short articles he shone more conspicuously than in longer or more pretentious editorial leaders. He was not a journalist to compete with others who had more comprehensive ideas of a newspaper. When, with a capacity for thinking and writing, it was necessary to have tact and energy to obtain the earliest news, Noah could not compete with the enterprising and vigorous journals of even his own period. Hence he was never successful. Major Noah died March 22d, 1851, while editing the Times and Messenger, at the age of sixty-six. The First Religious Newspapers. 289 CHAPTER XIX. THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. THE FIRST RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.-THE CHILLICOTHE RECORDER OF JOHN ANDREWS, AND THE BOSTON RECORDER OF NATHANIEL WILLIS. - AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A Journalist.—THE NEW YORK Observer.-THE WATCHMAN AND REFLECTOR.-ZION'S HERALD. THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.— THE EVANGELIST. THE INDEPENDENT.-HENRY WARD BEECHER AND WENDELL PHILLIPS AS THE LEADING Journalists.—Organs of ChurchES.-CHARACTER of the RELIGIOUS PRESS.-ITS UPS AND Downs.-ARCHBISHOP HUGHES.-NEWSPAPERS FOR CHIldren. WHEN and where was the first religious newspaper published in the United States? When and where in any part of the world? After the success of an important enterprise; after an invention in mechanics or a discovery in science have become a public benefit; after finding an available candidate for the presidency, numerous claimants spring up seeking the reward of the sewing machine, or the glory of the telegraph, or the honor of ether, or the office for first naming Taylor or Grant for the White House. So with lesser matters. Several years ago there was a controversy on the origin of religious newspapers. Who first conceived the idea of one? Who published the first one? Morse, of the New York Observer, put in his claim for the idea. Willis, of the Boston Recorder, filed his caveat as the inventor. In 1858, when Mr. Willis was in his seventy-ninth year, he published his reminiscences. It is not often that such an autobiography is given to the public. Its value just now is that it enables us to solve one of the questions of the age: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A JOURNALIST. BOSTON, Oct. 10, 1858. It has been suggested to me that my long and successful experience in establishing newspapers, without the advantages of talents, or education, or money, would, if committed to paper, be useful to others who may hereafter control the mighty power of the press. I will therefore attempt to give a narrative. My father was a practical printer. He printed and published the Independent Chronicle, a Whig paper, in Boston, from June, 1776, to January, 1784. I was born in Boston, June 6, 1780. My father removed to Virginia, leaving me in Boston till I was seven years of age, when he, being engaged in printing a newspaper in Winchester, sent for me, and I was immediately set to work in folding newspapers and setting types. He removed to Martinsburg in 1790, and commenced the Potomak Guardian, upon which paper I was kept at work until April, 1796. He then removed to Chillicothe, and set up the Sciota Gazette, the first paper in Ohio, and I returned to Boston, and commenced an apprenticeship in the office of the Chronicle, in the same room in Court street in which my father had worked, and where Benjamin Franklin had worked before him. T |